Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Automatic, but with an apparent element of magic. Commonly used in computer and other technology fields, referring to complex technical processes hidden from the view of users or operators. Includes a connotation of specialness and often implies pride on the part of the process creator (especially when the person using the word is the process creator). Sometimes, also used in sarcastic way, ironically implying an impossible process. A one-size-fits-all approach to automatic controls that replaces rather than supplements manual control, resulting in a product that is less flexible and more difficult to use.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Blend of automatic and magical

Support

The word automagical has been adopted by Joshua Simmons.

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Examples

  • This is really compact, but some programmers dislike "automagical" solutions like this since it makes it harder to read the code for those new to the Away3D library.

    News 2009

  • Although the process of digitization is often depicted as an "automagical" transubstantiation,

    virtualpolitik 2008

  • Another cool feature from one of their Japanese engineers in the Six Apart Scratch-a-Thon (nice to see a real global company) - who developed some automagical podcasting support for Typepad: It's easy.

    Six Apart Podcast Support + RadioHead Blog '6' Ben Barren 2005

  • Another cool feature from one of their Japanese engineers in the Six Apart Scratch-a-Thon nice to see a real global company- who developed some automagical podcasting support for Typepad : It's easy.

    Archive 2005-08-01 Ben Barren 2005

  • In a conference call Thursday to discuss Google's third-quarter earnings, Page promised the company will be weaving more of the company's products into Plus to ensure that users get an "automagical" experience.

    Boston.com Top Stories 2011

  • In a conference call Thursday to discuss Google's third-quarter earnings, Page promised the company will be weaving more of the company's products into Plus to ensure that users get an "automagical" experience.

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • "Our ultimate ambition is to transform the overall Google experience, making it beautifully simple, almost automagical, as we understand what you want and can deliver it instantly," Page said.

    StarTribune.com rss feed 2011

  • If you are comfortable with shell scripting and cron (or launchd, for non-dinosaurs) you can probably think up ways to adapt those examples and make it almost seem like the importing is as automagical as it is with. mov files.

    MacOSXHints.com 2010

  • If you are comfortable with shell scripting and cron (or launchd, for non-dinosaurs) you can probably think up ways to adapt those examples and make it almost seem like the importing is as automagical as it is with. mov files.

    MacOSXHints.com 2010

  • When this is done, you can pass the embedded bitmap to the automagical init-object when you create the sphere and Away3D will apply a new BitmapMaterial to it. var sphere: Sphere = new Sphere ({material: earthBitmap});

    Flash Magazine 2009

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